FINAL RESULTS 2012 OSCAR PREDICTIONS

MY OSCAR PREDICTIONS 

Not my best year, but I did get 4 out of 5 correct.  The only one I missed was Best Actress, which went to Meryll Streep.  It was well deserved, so no complaints.

I do wish George Clooney would have won for Best Actor, but again DuJardin had a great performance as well and only one can win.

I am thrilled my longshot for Best Supporting Actor was won by Christopher Plummer.  The oldest actor to win the award at 82.  This was not an obligatory Oscar given because he had never won one, like with John Wayne.  This was a well earned Oscar.

This year I decided to wait until the night before for my predictions so I wouldn’t waffle like I did last year.  I have to confess, that this year isn’t that exciting for me despite some strong performances.  Out of the 60 movies I saw this year, I didn’t even see all the nominated ones.  

My predictions are not always based off the ones I think are the best, but rather the ones I think the Academy will choose.  They tend to base decisions on politics over quality more often than not (IMHO).  So here we go:

Best Picture: For Best picture these were all good choices.  I am going to go with       The Artist

• The Artist
• The Descendant     This film is actually my favorite.  Great film that is low key at the same time

• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
• The Help
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• The Tree of Life
  This film still has me thinking to this day.  Incredibly artistic, but I can’t recommend it for the Oscar
• War Horse

Best Actor:  All of these were great performances, but the politics are all with

Jean Dujardin in The Artist

• Demián Bichir

• George Clooney
  Best Clooney performance to date.  I would like him to win
• Jean Dujardin

• Gary Oldman

• Brad Pitt

Best Actress: This one is up in the air.  I’m going to go with:

Viola Davis for The Help

• Glenn Close
  Vanity performance.  Never bought that she was a man
• Viola Davis

• Rooney Mara
  Great performance, but the movie didn’t make a big impact.  Strong feminist role, so maybe

• Meryl Streep
  Oscar darling and great performance, but no heat here
• Michelle Williams

            This could very well be the win, but I’m not going with it.

Best Supporting Actor:  Again with great performances.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say 

Christopher Plummer for The Beginners

• Kenneth Branagh

• Jonah Hill

• Nick Nolte

• Christopher Plummer

• Max von Sydow

Best Supporting Actress:  I’m going to go with 

Octavia Spencer for The Help

• Bérénice Bejo
• Jessica Chastain
• Melissa McCarthy
  The Oscars largely ignores comedies, which is too bad as Meliisa did a great performance in Bridesmaids
• Janet McTeer
• Octavia Spencer

Best Director:  This is one of the few times that I think all of these efforts are deserving. I think the mojo is with:

Michael Hazanavicius

• The Artist
  Michel Hazanavicius

• The Descendants
  Alexander Payne
  Something to be proud of

• Hugo
  Martin Scorsese
  This is the one I think should get it

• Midnight in Paris
  Woody Allen
• The Tree of Life
  Terrence Malick

            Incredible artistic achievement.

Hugo

       ‘Hugo’ is Martin Scorsese’s tribute to film.  It’s not like anything he has ever done before and it is in the dreaded 3-D.  I’m not a huge fan of 3-D, but for this film it actually works.  This is what 3-D was meant to be.   I marveled at Scorcese’s artistry in blending live action, CGI, and 3-D to tell his story.  It’s a kid’s film, but can be enjoyed at any age.

Hugo (played with an Oscar worthy performance by Asa Butterfield) is an orphan living in the walls of a train station in 1930’s Paris.  The whole feel of the film is right out of a Charles Dickens novel.  He spends his days tinkering and fixing clocks and other mechanical devices.  It’s a talent he inherited from his father.  His only remaining connection to his father is an automaton that he is gathering scraps from around the station to complete.  He has two nemesises that keep him in constant fear; The train station’s gendarme, played by Sacha Baron Cohen (who hilariously channels Inspector Clouseau and the Kid Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang simultaneously).   The other is the grumpy old toy vendor Geoges Méliès (played to acting perfection by Ben Kingsley).

Hugo meets a young girl named Isabelle in his daily adventures (played with an equal Oscar worthy performance by Chloë Grace Moretz).  Isabelle becomes fascinated with Hugo’s life and decides to join him on his quest to find the missing part of his father’s unfinished automaton.   Hugo discovers that Isabelle is the niece of the old toy vendor and desperately needs her to help him retrieve a personal item that the vendor took from Hugo.

As with any Dicken’s novel or kid’s film from the 1960s, we soon learn there is more than meets the eye to Georges Méliès than just a grumpy old man.  Hugo learns, that Georges was the actual creator of the automaton that Hugo is working on and knew Hugo’s father very well.  In fact, far from being a forgotten old man in a train station, Hugo discovers that Georges was one of the pioneers of early films and a legend, even if Georges believes he has been forgotten.  This is where Scorcese’s true love of film shows as he intermixes the history of the birth of film into the story.  Its’ not a dry documentary, rather it captures what the emotions and marvel must have been like for those people who were first able to put the Lumiere brother’s invention of moving pictures to use.  Things we take for granted because we’ve known it all our lives almost seemed like magic back then.  Any one who is a film history enthusiast will be riveted through the last half of the film.

The true joy of this film is the artistry of it.  It’s story telling from yesteryear, but updated with modern CGI and 3-D.  It’s not gratuitous use of special effects like so many films are today.  To the contrary, it shows the potential of these tools as a way of fully telling a story.  It shows in the right hands, these advances in film are not cheap gimmicks, but truly enhances a capable director’s ability to tell a story. The opening scene of the camera sweeping through the city scape of 1930’s Paris to finally come to rest on Hugo peering out from behind a clock in a cavernous Paris train station sets the tone for the whole film and is incredible to watch.  If you ever had any doubt of Scorcese’s gift as an artist, then this film should put it to rest.  It’s a film the whole family can enjoy at many different levels.  Truly a remarkable piece of film making.

I give this film   **** stars.